Burmese Concepts of Global History from the Imperial to the Post-Cold War Period

Charney, Michael W.

Abstract

The present paper examines the case of Burma, in which a past ‘dominant perspective’ on world or global history has had difficulty being reconciled with a ‘passive perspective’ on global history. Burma is by no means competing today with China in global connections, but it did undergo a very powerful intellectual reordering at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries from a Burmese ‘dominant perspective’ on world relations to a Burmese ‘passive perspective’ into the early 1960s. A return to a modified version of the Burmese ‘dominant perspective,’ from 1962 or thereabouts, continues to obstruct resolution of very serious political, ethnic, and religious fissures in the country today. The paper examines three main periods of Burmese historical thought on the country’s place in world or global history.

Citation

Charney, M. W. (2017, August). Burmese Concepts of Global History from the Imperial to the Post-Cold War Period. Paper presented at ENIUGH Conference, Budapest

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: ENIUGH Conference
• Start Date: Aug 27, 2017
• End Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 1, 2018
• Keywords: Global History, Burma, Myanmar
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference